First timer questions

[Comiller04]

Just bought a Masterbuilt electric smoker. Just have some questions. What would be a good meat to try for the first time? I'm leaning toward doing a pork butt for pulled pork. Should I do bone in or boneless? Can you use alcohol in place of water? Theres a hard root beer I have made a pulled pork with in the crockpot that I really enjoy. Do most people use a rub on it? There's a rub I use on burgers and pork chops that I really enjoy. Its called Cowboy Rub. What would be a good flavor of wood chips to use? Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[HalfSmoked]

1st smoke I would do something that's not going to be a long cook a pork shoulder for PP could take as much as 14 - 15 hrs. Need to learn control of the smoker and regulate the temperatures. Look under the MES smokers in the forum listing a lot of info lot of guys on here use them.
Just my$.02

Warren

 

[bregent]

Bone in or boneless, doesn't matter. I prefer bone in as it's been handled less and does need to be tied up with string. If you're talking about a water pan, I would not put any flavored liquid in there - little to no flavor would be infused into the meat. It you really want to add that flavor you could inject, spray or mop it on there.
Most Cowboy rubs I've see have little to no sugar, and most folks want sugar in the pork rubs as it promotes bark and sweet goes good with pork. But it's mostly a matter of personal preference.

 

[TomKnollRFV]

I go with Bone in pork butt for this; the bone is sort of a built in bench mark. When you hit 205f Internal Temp, wiggle the bone, if it feels like it might just come out, it's done...


As for the liquid? In a MES electric, do not ever add liquid, it just makes it takes hours longer. Rub is really personal taste...

As for wood? Apple is great with pork, light, sweet. Apple is pretty much all I use for any thing I smoke.

 

[HalfSmoked]

Here is one of the things you will find on the forum and that is a lot of the answers you get will be personal preference. I had a 30"MES and I always used the water pan. Alcohol not sure maybe burn off the alcohol first you are just looking for the flavor.

Warren

 

[schlotz]

There is so much fat in the butt you really do not need to use any liquid. One thing you will find is that you will be feeding wood chips on a regular basis which is why many have substituted that by using the amazen tray smoker and pellets. Good advice by warren re: learning how your smoker behaves prior to attempting a long smoke. If still interested in trying a butt, check out the recipe in my signature below.

 

[chef jimmyj]

All good answers. I don't put liquid in the pan and definitely don't bother with flavored anything. Next to no flavor molecules get on the meat and you end up with greasy sticky burnt rootbeer syrup in the pan! From a scary experience, limit the amount of chips added to no more than 1/4 cup. Early on I packed that sucker thinking it would smoke longer than 30 minutes. Five minutes in, an explosion blew the loader out the side and the tray was on fire.
Butts are a long cook. Chicken can be done in <3 hours or Spare Ribs in 6. Take the free 5 hour ecourse and review what others have smoked on the MES. Look at the A-MAZE-N pellet maze and search mailbox mod...JJ

 

[Comiller04]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm going to attempt a pork butt tomorrow. I got bone in shoulder. The local meat shop had an 8 lb butt that I had cut into two 4 lb butts. I'm debating if I just cook one as a trial or I do both at same time. Will it take longer to cook two 4 lb butts at same time vs one 4lb butt by itself? Do I need to soak the chips before I put them in? What temperature do you guys smoke pork at?

 

[Comiller04]

Also, I've read people use mustard and then put the rub on. Does it matter if I season it tonight or tomorrow right before I smoke it?

 

[TomKnollRFV]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm going to attempt a pork butt tomorrow. I got bone in shoulder. The local meat shop had an 8 lb butt that I had cut into two 4 lb butts. I'm debating if I just cook one as a trial or I do both at same time. Will it take longer to cook two 4 lb butts at same time vs one 4lb butt by itself? Do I need to soak the chips before I put them in? What temperature do you guys smoke pork at?

Honestly it always seems with pork butts, doing multiple only adds maybe a half hour.

You don't need to soak the chips, it's actually a bad idea to do so, and I smoke at 225f, though my last pork butt I started overnight <I start mine at midnight> at 225f, and around 10pm I cranked the sucker up to 275f <High as my MES will go> and it was done around 4:30 PM.

 

[Comiller04]

Honestly it always seems with pork butts, doing multiple only adds maybe a half hour.

You don't need to soak the chips, it's actually a bad idea to do so, and I smoke at 225f, though my last pork butt I started overnight <I start mine at midnight> at 225f, and around 10pm I cranked the sucker up to 275f <High as my MES will go> and it was done around 4:30 PM.

You mean 10am? So wait until it hits 225 before putting the butts in or put them in and turn it on? Do you put them directly on grates or in a foil pan? One of my customers talked about wrapping it in foil after so long?

 

[TomKnollRFV]

You mean 10am? So wait until it hits 225 before putting the butts in or put them in and turn it on? Do you put them directly on grates or in a foil pan? One of my customers talked about wrapping it in foil after so long?

Yes sorry, I meant 10 AM I went out to check on my pork butt and cranked it up to 275f until the IT was 205f. I personally do not wrap and put directly on the grates or use my grill pan.

Always preheat your smoker prior to adding things. If you want to wrap, do it around 150-155f Internal Temp. That is what is called The Stall. When the collagen begins breaking down, and can take hours to get through. <Thus why I put pork butts on overnight. I sleep through part if not all of the stall>

 

[Comiller04]

How soon after starting should I put wood chips in and how often should I? Sorry for all the questions, just dont want to screw it up lol

 

[TomKnollRFV]

Well, once I put the meat/whatever in I am smoking, I put in wood chips. Then about every 30-45 mins I'll add more for as long as I want smoke to roll.